Increasing performance in an economic downturn

In this less-than-ideal economy, business owners around the world are all scrambling to stay afloat with different, and sometimes drastic, strategies. Sometimes these strategies are well thought out and tested, but other times they are just hit and miss solutions to quickly fix a problem. Now, more than ever, companies need to root their strategies in data analytics. While the task may seem daunting in a time when organizations need quick answers to big problems, with the right solution, companies can stay up-to-date on their data analytics, make educated decisions, and be flexible for when the economy eventually bounces back.

Preparing for the Grim Outlook
Some business owners’ gut reaction is to do nothing, survive off profits from past years, and hope that when they surface again the economy will be better than ever. Unfortunately, CFOs around the world don’t anticipate an economy recovery for quite some time – definitely not soon enough to “wait it out.” Duke University and CFO Magazine conduct a Global Business Outlook Survey every year where they ask CFOs from a broad range of global companies about their expectations for the economy. This year, CFOs were increasingly pessimistic about the economy, rating the economic outlook at an all-time low of 40 on a scale of 0 to 100. They also predicted that an economic recovery wouldn’t come for another 14 months.

“This is very troubling,” said Kate O’Sullivan, senior writer at CFO Magazine. “Throughout the history of our survey, CFOs have shown a remarkable ability to predict future economic conditions. They anticipated the current recession as far back as September 2007. Given the CFOs’ track record, the historic pessimism CFOs are currently expressing certainly indicates a tough road ahead in 2009.”

While this information does seem troubling at first, it doesn’t have to be scary. Knowing that this economic struggle is expected to last 14 months helps you plan for the future. Instead of hiding or running away from it, you can use your business-critical information to help guide you through the next year.

Storing Critical Information in Data Sources
Any good business has a place where they store critical information: a database, an off-the-shelf business intelligence (BI) program, a complex spreadsheet, etc. These statistics, graphs, maps, and numbers allow business owners to track and measure processes across the organization. As corporations seek new ways to engage their customers, deliver information to their employees, and create revenue, metrics become vital to measuring progress.

In fact, executives across many industries are turning to IT solutions to stay in tune with their business status in these uncertain times. In spite of the economic downturn, most companies’ IT investment in 2008 remained the same or were higher than in 2007 according to the Information Week Analytics Survey of 500 Executives.

Business owners recognize the importance of keeping an eye on their critical information in a change economy. However, having the data does nothing if you can’t access it when you need it and view it in a way that makes sense to you. Employees and key decision makers spend an enormous amount of time searching for and extrapolating the data they need from multiple applications and spend even more time analyzing that data to determine what the numbers mean in terms of their company strategies. After all this, the decision they make may already be too late.

Retrieving Data Visually for Quicker Decision Making
In his book, Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business, Wayne Eckerson says “. . . what organizations really need is a performance dashboard that translates the organization's strategy into objectives, metrics, initiatives, and tasks customized to each group and individual in the organization.”

Eckerson wasn’t talking specifically about organizations in this economic situation, but what he says is especially important for organizations today. With the dynamic nature of the current business climate, organizations need a way to quickly locate the data they need, analyze it to get the information they want, and make a decision before the competition does.

Some companies think of performance dashboards as “nice to have” but not necessary, but performance dashboards are an important part of bringing back confidence in your company and aligning employees, partners, and customers in your business. Eckerson tells the story of his young boy who discovers that directing sunlight through a magnifying glass focuses the sun’s energy so intensely that he can burn items around the yard. Eckerson compares this to performance dashboards that work as an “organizational magnifying glass” that helps intensely focus the users of your dashboard in one direction. No matter how tight your team is or how encouraging and motivational your leaders are, they will fall apart if they don’t have an easy way to measure, monitor, and manage their progress toward achieving strategic objectives.

With the free flow of information on a performance dashboard, every person on every level of the organization can view the same, accurate information in your business strategy. All decisions based on this information will align and move your organization in the direction you want it to go. Team members of every level and every location will be privy to key metrics, analytics, and customer data and can cooperate on critical issues. The dashboard can alert your team to problems, trends, and opportunities in real-time enabling them to immediately collaborate and make decisions.

The performance dashboard is the key to data visualization – it combines reporting and analysis capabilities with visual representation. This combination ensures that you have the right data in the right format for the right people to optimize decisions and accelerate results. The performance dashboard makes it easy to communicate key strategies and goals to employees on a personal basis every day to keep motivation and confidence high.

Picking the Right Dashboard
You can see the importance of a performance dashboard, but it is also important to remember that all dashboards are not the same. By picking the right performance dashboard, you will have even more capabilities and flexibility. Options like Corda’s CenterView answer the need we addressed at the beginning of this article: it is a cost-effective way to stay up-to-date with data analytics, make informed decisions, and create flexibility in your strategy.

Resourcing Time and People Wisely
The very best performance dashboard solutions make your data accessible any time and anywhere you have an Internet connection. The key members of your team can make decisions from their laptop, home desktop, or even from their mobile phone. Everyone is being stretched thin during these low economic times. While some people are doing everything they can to keep their jobs, others are busy performing tasks previously resourced to other employees. The time your team members save from manually searching and analyzing information can be focused on more mission-critical tasks – giving your company an edge on the competition.

Because their time is so important, you want to make sure the dashboard you pick is easy to use and gives your team members every piece of information they need. Metrics only provide value if the resulting information is available, usable, and reliable to those who can act on it. A good performance dashboard allows users to drill down on charts, graphs, and maps to instantly discover the root cause of a problem and fix it from the source. Users can quickly get to the information they need without navigating to another data source. Once again, that is time they can dedicate to other mission-critical tasks.

A drill-down feature also allows users to view relevant and timely information from multiple perspectives and at various levels of detail. This gives your team the opportunity to investigate other areas of your business that may never have been uncovered before. Looking at different views of the dashboard sparks interest and encourages employees to think creatively.

Staying Up-to-Date on All Critical Information
Many companies have data stored in multiple places and have to visit three or four different databases before they can gather all the information they need. Another feature to look for in a performance dashboard is the ability to map data from virtually any source and display that data in one place. With a solution like CenterView, on one dashboard, you can view information that is stored in Excel spreadsheets, Business Objects, Salesforce, SAP BW, html tables, and anywhere else you have data stored. Even better, every time you drill down, the information displayed is the most up-to-date information from your data source – keeping all your team members aware of the most recent information.

Having information in real-time from multiple sources allows you to address problems and pursue opportunities as soon as they become apparent. To always be on top of your business, you need to access information as quickly as possible, and that information needs to be the most up-to-date information you have for it to be useful.

Establishing Your Stable and Scalable Business
Another vital feature in the best performance dashboards is flexibility. Flexibility is always a nice feature in software, but in the case of a performance dashboard, it is extremely important to your company. The flexibility of the dashboard solution directly affects the flexibility of your company.

You might be able to find a cheap dashboard solution that fits your needs right now, but the possibility of it changing and scaling with your company is slim. The economy will eventually start to improve, and you’ll need a solution that is flexible enough to grow as your company grows. And as you grow, you may decide to choose a new operating system or merge with a company that uses a different data source. If you choose a flexible solution, you won’t need to worry about changing and growing. You might only be using one source to store your data now, but if your company chooses to incorporate a new BI solution, you’ll need a dashboard to support it.

Since viewing data visually is the main benefit of the performance dashboard, this aspect should also be flexible. You know best how you want to view certain information – as a chart, a line graph, a pie graph, a map, a bar graph, etc. – and you should be able to render information in the format that is most useful to you. With the right performance dashboard solution, you’ll be able to customize your visualizations and update them as your needs and opinions change.

Taking Action and Making Informed Decisions
Accessing your data in a visual and intuitive format is more important now than ever before. Every business needs a solution that will unify employees and give key decision makers the tools to make informed choices.

Don’t duck and cover during this economic recession – take matters into your own hands. You can get a performance dashboard solution such as CenterView up and running in a few days or weeks. Align your team to start making informed decisions today.